Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) plays a critical role in securing digital communications and transactions, and organizations often consider multi-year plans as a viable solution to reduce administrative tasks and gain discounts. While multi-year plans may seem appealing, it is key to understand and consider the potential drawbacks associated with this approach.
Let us delve into the drawbacks organizations should be aware of when considering multi-year plans for PKI certificates.
- Lack of Flexibility and Agility: Multi-year plans for digital certificates often fail to account for evolving business requirements, organizational changes, and the dynamic technology landscape. This lack of flexibility hampers an organization's ability to adapt to emerging use cases, evolving user needs, and changes in the certificate management ecosystem. Additionally, committing to a multi-year certificate plans locks organizations into securing specific servers or endpoints, limiting their ability to adjust if circumstances change. Removing and changing domains may also result in additional costs.
- Changing Business Requirements: Multi-year plans based on reissuing the same certificate over and over assume static business requirements throughout the subscription period. However, businesses often experience shifts in infrastructure, technology, and security needs. Multi-year plans may not effectively accommodate these changes, resulting in limited adaptability, hidden costs, and potential inefficiencies as you are buying continuous certificate coverage for up to the length of the multi-year plan, generally 3, 4 or 5-years.
- Cost Considerations: Multi-year plans typically involve upfront payments or long-term financial commitments. It is important to assess the cost implications and ensure that the investment aligns with the organization's budget and long-term objectives. Evaluating whether the pricing remains competitive over the entire duration is crucial.
- Lock-In: Opting for a multi-year plan without flexibility restricts organizations from adapting to the rapidly changing landscape, hindering their ability to leverage new opportunities without paying additional fees to swap the SANs into or out of your certificate.
Introducing SAN Licensing
We understand the importance of flexibility in certificate management. Instead of offering multi-year plans, we provide SAN (Subject Alternative Name) licensing which addresses these concerns.
Our SAN Licensing provides greater customization and adaptability. You have the freedom to scale and adjust your certificate deployments based on evolving business requirements. Our licensing model allows you to efficiently and cost-effectively add or remove SANs (alternative domains) from your certificates without any additional fees, empowering you to respond swiftly to changes without being tied to long-term inflexible commitments.
With SAN Licensing, you can optimize your certificate management, embrace emerging use cases, and seize new opportunities as they arise. We recognize that the technology landscape and organizational needs can shift rapidly, and our focus is on providing a customizable and adaptable solution that aligns with your changing business requirements. SAN Licensing offers the benefits of consolidated certificates, streamlined management, cost savings, and enhanced security across your resources.
In Summary…
While multi-year plans offer potential advantages, it is crucial to carefully evaluate your organization's specific requirements and risk tolerance. Security is an ongoing process, and adaptability is essential in navigating the evolving digital landscape.
Our SAN Licensing offers the flexibility and adaptability you require, allowing you to effectively manage your certificates without the constraints of a rigid multi-year plan. We therefore invite you to explore the benefits of SAN Licensing and reach out to us for more information or to discuss automating your PKI certificate processes. Our approach enhances security, mitigates risks, and provides peace of mind. We are here to assist you and provide further details on how our solutions can meet your unique requirements.
